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"In the ICIG judgment, the alleged behavior of a senior US official to seek foreign assistance in order to interfere or influence a federal election (…) would also expose potentially such a US public official (or other people acting in concert with the US public official) Atkinson wrote that "the risks associated with national security and counterintelligence are serious for foreign intelligence services aware of these actions ".
Although the Inspector General forwarded the whistleblower's complaint to Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, as well as his findings "of urgent concern" at the end of August, the complaint It has only been sent to Congress this week.
In its directives, which Maguire described as "restrictive", the Justice Department challenged Atkinson's determination that the complaint was an "urgent concern", thus releasing the DNI from the obligation of Send to Congress.
Thursday, Maguire defended his decisions, calling the situation "unprecedented". He added that concerns of "executive privilege" regarding the president's phone call also prevented his communication of the complaint to Congress.
"It was not a stone wall," Maguire told legislators. "I have to comply with the law, not what some people would like it to be, and if I could have done it otherwise, it would have been much more convenient for me."
Atkinson's letter confirming the "urgent concern" and credibility of the whistleblower, dated August 26, was made public Thursday morning by the chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
In his argument, Atkinson also cites Trump's own words of a recent decree on the "extraordinary threat to national security and US foreign policy" resulting from foreign interference in US elections.
Atkinson added that he had also established the credibility of the whistleblower, revealing new details about his link to the information contained in the allegations, while acknowledging the whistleblower's possible political bias.
While much of the whistleblower's complaint is based on information attributed to unnamed US officials as well as information, Atkinson wrote in his analysis that the whistleblower had "official and authorized access to information and information". sources mentioned "in the complaint.
The whistleblower also has "a thorough knowledge of most important information" in the complaint, writes Atkinson.
Atkinson is aware of the whistleblower's identity, he wrote.
In its two-week preliminary examination of the allegations, the ICIG office "identified some clues of a defensible political bias on the part of the plaintiff in favor of a rival political candidate", although Atkinson adds that this evidence "has not changed my determination that the urgent concern complaint" seems credible, "particularly given the other information obtained by the ICIG at the time of writing. its preliminary examination. "
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